During his appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Sam Altman, the founder and CEO of OpenAI – the artificial intelligence company behind generative AI systems ChatGPT and DALL-E, voiced his concerns over the U.S. government’s hostile approach towards Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies.
Altman referred to the federal government’s enforcement action on crypto as an onslaught of the industry, comparing their recent activities to a literal war. He also expressed his disappointment with the U.S. government trying everything at hand to get control of Bitcoin and the crypto market.
Sam Altman Believes the U.S Government Wants to Have Control Over Bitcoin
The creator of the widely popular machine-learning large language model ChatGPT also expressed his concerns about the potential expansion of the U.S. surveillance state with the introduction of a central bank-issued digital currency (CBDC) in the form of a digital dollar. Altman said he is opposed to the concept of a CBDC, stating that he is “super against” any form of digital currency that could initiate a state-sponsored control over people’s money.
Altman remains optimistic about Bitcoin, emphasizing the significance of having a global currency that is outside the control of any government. He added that cryptocurrencies deployed on decentralized blockchain networks are a “super logical” and “important” step on the “tech tree”.
Despite his pro-crypto stance, the prodigy is a bit of a controversial figure in the crypto space, even dividing opinions for his involvement in the cryptocurrency project Worldcoin. The project aims to create a virtual database for humans to differentiate them from bots on the internet while allowing them to participate in a global financial network powered by the WLD token.
The controversial part of Worldcoin is its use of a biometric device known as the “Orb” that scans users’ irises for verification in exchange for the tokens. Many critics argue that the project raises more questions about privacy and ethics rather than finding solutions to the underlying problem of online identity.
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Kenya Wants to Ban Altman’s Worldcoin Crypto Project
Late last month, a parliamentarian committee assigned by the Kenyan government to investigate Worldcoin called for the project to be banned in the country. The committee was concerned with the way in which Tools for Humanity Corp – developers of Worldcoin – was collecting biometric data and personally identifiable information of its residents.
In August, the company was asked to halt its operations after failing to get approval from the African nation’s Communication Authority to use the Orbs to perform the eye scanning procedure. Kenya’s information technology regulator considers the Orb a telecommunications device.
The Kenyan parliament has since ordered the Communications Authority to disable Worldcoin’s physical and virtual presence in the country and also blacklist any IP address that could be linked to its main website. The government also claimed that the crypto project’s activities constituted acts of espionage and were a “threat to statehood”.
Worldcoin, which was launched in July, encouraged users to sign up by offering them $50 worth of WLD coins for free. Regulators took notice of the project after people started flocking to orb locations in major cities across the world for the sign-up bonus. According to various reports, so far, about 2 million users have signed up to the Worldcoin network.
Authorities in the United Kingdom, Argentina, Germany, and France have launched investigations into Sam Altman’s crypto project citing concerns about it operating by circumventing data protection and user privacy laws.
At the time of writing, WLD was trading at $1.53 – down 4.6% in the last 24 hours.
